Owners of about 12,000 power loom job working units at Palladam and Mangalam areas and their families observed a fast near here on Sunday.
They were alleging that job work charges were not given at the increased slabs by the master weavers for whom they produced the fabrics.
“As per the three-year agreement signed by the power loom job working units with the master weavers in 2014, the job work charges have been increased by 27 per cent from then prevailed rates. However, the increased charges were given for the first few months and then the promises were violated,” said R. Velusamy, president of Tirupur District Job Work Power loom Weavers Association.
According to him, the fast has been observed only because that the subsequent talks held in the presence of District Collector for the last two years did not yield any result.
“Every time, the master weavers agree to stick to the agreement, but only to deviate from the assurances when it comes to disbursing job work charges”, he said.
Counter claim
When contacted, M. Duraisamy, president of Tirupur District Power loom Cloth Manufacturers Association, the representative body master weavers, pointed out that there were no written pacts between master weavers and job working unit owners in the history.
“There used to be only dialogues and rates are fixed orally. In the present case, the 27 per cent they talk about is the one they looked to have made with certain master weavers of Avinashi, Somanur and Palladam areas after the respective authorised associations of master weavers in the said regions were dissolved a few years ago,” he added.
